RACV ArtHouse unveils vibrant silk exhibition

RACV ArtHouse unveils vibrant silk exhibition | Insurance Business Australia

Motor & Fleet

Exhibition features botanical materials from Creswick region

Motor & Fleet

By
Roxanne Libatique

RACV ArtHouse at the RACV Goldfields Resort is showcasing a new exhibition by artist Sangeeta Sandrasegar.

The exhibition, “Yellow deep that drew your eyes,” is open until Oct. 6.

Created in collaboration with master dyer Heather Thomas, the exhibition uses botanical materials from the Creswick region.

“RACV is pleased to support exhibitions like this that engage the arts community and provide an opportunity for locals and guests to enjoy world-class art experiences,” she said.

RACV ArtHouse artists

The silk artworks feature dyes made from the Cherry Ballart, a native tree. The yellows and golds in the works symbolise the Goldfields’ historical significance, migration, and employment stories.

Sandrasegar reflected on migration and identity in her work.

“I started to reflect upon my own experience as a child travelling between Malaysia and Australia, and how much that movement informed my own growth and reasons why I make the work I do now,” she said. “I came across a series of childhood drawings that my Mum stored for years, and I selected a few of these drawings that we recreated using a similar dye process that’s in the larger silk.

“There’s a lot of children that come through this resort, so to have some drawings that they could relate to and hung at a scale that they could see I thought would help introduce people to art at an earlier stage.”

Sandrasegar earned a PhD from the Victorian College of the Arts and the Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne. Her work has been displayed across Australia at venues such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, the Australian Centre of Contemporary Art in Melbourne, and the Gallery of Modern Art in Queensland. She has also participated in international exhibitions and biennials in New Zealand, Korea, India, and the USA.

Thomas holds a diploma of arts (studio textiles and design) from RMIT and a degree in the arts (language and culture studies) from Deakin University. She was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2019 to study botanical dye studios in Japan and the USA. Thomas will conduct a natural dye workshop at Ballarat’s Centre for Rare Arts and Forgotten Trades in August 2024.